Ontari ari ari O

Back to incredibly warm weather in Ontario after leaving Freeport in the aftermath of a tornado! Funny thing happened on the way to the plane. On the bus from one terminal to another I spoke briefly to someone from France with a reasonable command of English and as we're climbing the stairs to the plane he says "Pardon me, I don't wish to be rude but I think your pants are on upside down." I managed not to laugh hysterically and said, "no they're not, they're reversible." They're my favourite pants and since they are reversible the seam is noticeable.

So that's all the news - except yes indeed there was a tornado, something rather rare in the Bahamas. Port Lucaya (near us) suffered somewhat but the biggest tragedy was at the container port where 3 people died.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100329/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_bahamas_tornado

This and That

Pirates of the Caribbean - a member of the extras had a birthday party and invited all the other extras.



Would you believe it's so cold at "Happy Hour," between 4 and 5 that we went shopping for a washing machine down the deserted roads so we could make a fire pit.

A Two Hour Tour - or - Cheated Death Once Again

Tuesday, March 3, 2010. We had to move Dulcinea from where she was back to where she usually is (long story, don't ask). The wind forecast was bad, but it would be bad for a week so what the hell, it's only 7 miles. Three of us set out, John was conscripted, I was too stupid to know any better and Gerry wanted her moved. We set out at 10:40, just going up the coast, piece of cake LOL. The trip through the canal went well, but then we had get past the big rocks at the jetty and wow, were those waves big (approx. 14 feet). I naively asked if we'd get wet! The boat (44 foot) bounced up so high and crashed down so fiercely the waves came right over the bow to the cockpit and totally soaked us. I had a rain coat on but it did no good, drenched to the skin in 30 seconds.

So there we are bouncing through the surf, no way to turn around safely and the Bahamian Air Sea Rescue radios us to tell us we were crazy. I looked around and noticed that there were no boats on the water. That should have told us something. I also noticed that I wasn't wearing a life jacket! Unfortunately they were in the locker at the very back of the boat behind the steering wheel. I couldn't ask Gerry to get them he was battling the ocean and I was sure I couldn't get back there without being washed overboard. As for John, he was standing in the hatchway (keeping watch on the radar/chart plotter) and he sure wasn't going to move from that safe haven. Ah well, I've lived a good life.

After about an hour it wasn't fun any more and I didn't know if I'd ever be able to straighten my fingers out - they were permanently affixed to the bimini frame that had fallen down in front of me 2 seconds after the first wave. So there we are being knocked around but making good progress when all of a sudden an alarm goes off and there's steam coming out of the hatchway! The engine has overheated, not good, without an engine we'll be on the reef! Gerry jumps down into the back compartment to check out the cooling water - what a break for me because he tossed up the life jackets. Before I had a chance to put one on I'm ordered into the boat to fetch a jug of water - is he nuts I think? I can't let go, I'll fall overboard. As you can see I didn't but despite my valiant action in fetching water (getting knocked around down below), nothing could be done from that compartment so Gerry jumps down into the boat, removes the engine cover and tries to figure out where exactly the steam is coming from and how to fix it. Meanwhile without power we're drifting sideways towards the reef. I could only hope that when we crashed I'd be washed up on a sandy beach and not on any rocks.

But wait, the steam has stopped, the alarm is quiet. I risk moving to peer down into the hatchway. There's Gerry with a hose going from the galley tap to somewhere in the engine - what a MacGyver! We could now rev up the engine (which fortunately never actually died) and get into the canal. There were a few people on both sides of the jetty, apparently some had been watching and wondering who these idiots out there were. We got cheers and applause as we made our way into Port Lucaya. Cheating death once again as John likes to say.

The boat in the photo? Not us, someone who bounced over the reef at 4:30 this morning and washed up on shore, could have been us (the lone 74 year old sailor was unhurt). The picture of the water doesn't really show how high the waves are beyond the reef. Other photo is the "road" they knocked out to get to the boat to drag it out of the water. Wonder if they got a permit?

Sailing back to Port Lucaya

Due to high winds we stayed in Governor's Harbour for 2 nights. Of course when we're trying to sail back the winds are either gone or from the wrong direction. We did manage to do some sailing with both sails up and the motors off for a while.

Circle of fish herded by sharks?

typical sight, another freighter

Easter Eggs, too much time on my hands.

Most favourite spot.

Least favourite spot.

Took turns keeping watch, fortunately the moon was very bright. On my watch we passed 5 cruise ships and 1 very large freighter. Radar was skewed and what I thought was off to starboard was really straight ahead of us! The freighter turned before hitting us. Apparently he was so close that I should have woken someone up  - oops! I finally got to "drive" for more than a few minutes (the times the guys put the main sail up or down) as we sailed into Bell Channel, Port Lucaya. It took approximately 26 hours to get back.

Governor's Harbour, Eleuthera February 24

Chilly rainy day that just got worse.

Crazy men flyfishing in the downpour.

Junk on anchor

Braved the rain to buy this giant.

Dragged the anchor again, the wind was really really bad and about 6 a.m. tried to reset to no avail, didn't realize the anchor was totally fouled with cabling. Thought it was just seaweed, was too dark to see what it was until after we had already moved around the bay to a calmer safer harbour.

Cape Eleuthera Feb 23

Got up at 3 this morning to make the run over to Eleuthera. Would you believe John said it's too dark, we'll wait awhile. Did he think it would be light at this hour, not to mention it was raining. I might have been a bit cranky. Left at around 5:30 and made excellent time under sail and motor. For a while the sea was like glass, just beautiful and the boat wasn't rocking. At a luxury marina for one night, not much happening, hardly any guests at the resort but we had a few laughs with the staff - very friendly folk, got free ice cream and they have internet for $10. Gerry takes exception to the sunset photo, but that's the way it turned out using the sunset setting on the camera, honest, no photo shopping. Click here for a map of where we are.

Fernandez Bay Cat Island Feb. 22

So here we are on Cat Island, only saw one cat. We anchored in front of a fancy resort where buffet breakfast is $10 (reasonable and plenty) but dinner is $48. Rented a car and were assured we couldn't get lost there are so few roads and the island is small. So of course we did - see photo of car in front of abandoned building a dead end road along the beach. Got our bearings and toured most of the island. Stopped for drinks at the pretty painted building, checked out the bats in the bat cave, took a really bad road to the other side of the island (just to see it, which annoyed John) and had dinner (large plate of fish, salad, fries for $10) at Coconuts. Click here for a map of where we are.